Quarterly Revenue Increased 82% vs Q2 2023; Gross
Margin Increases Substantially
MIAMI, Aug. 13,
2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Innovative Eyewear Inc.,
(NASDAQ: LUCY, LUCYW), the developer of ChatGPT-enabled smart
eyewear under the Lucyd®, Nautica®, Eddie
Bauer® and Reebok® brands, today announced
its financial results for the second quarter of 2024.
Net revenue for the quarter ended June
30, 2024 was $308,682, an
increase of 82% from the quarter ended June
30, 2023. Net revenue for the six months ended June 30, 2024 was $692,153, an increase of 120% vs. the comparable
period in 2023. These year-over-year increases were primarily
attributable to significant volume growth in the ecommerce channel,
driven by the Company's strategic advertising and marketing
initiatives implemented during the latter portion of 2023 and
through the current period, combined with recent new product
launches including the Lucyd Lyte XL, Nautica®
Powered by Lucyd and Eddie Bauer® Powered by Lucyd
collections.
Additionally, the Company's gross profit margins significantly
improved from the prior year, from a deficit of negative 18% in the
second quarter of 2023 to positive 18% in the second quarter of
2024, reflecting greater economies of scale coupled with achieving
management's stated goal to reduce lens fulfillment costs.
During the quarter Innovative Eyewear announced several
important milestones:
- Expanding the Company's first-to-market voice interface for
ChatGPT, the Company launched a Bixby app called LUCY to enable
handsfree ChatGPT access on its glasses for Samsung users. This
brings a powerful new feature to Samsung phone users - the ability
to access ChatGPT via the device's native voice assistant from LUCY
eyewear.
- Filed two new United States
patent applications, a utility application, No. 18/605,092,
entitled, "SMART EYEWEAR HAVING ACCESSIBLE TACTILE CONTROLS" and a
design application, No. 29/930,655, entitled "SAFETY EYEWEAR."
These two new patent applications are directed towards Innovative
Eyewear's new Lucyd Armor smart safety glasses product, planned for
introduction later this year. The Company developed Lucyd Armor to
meet the needs of industrial and medical safety glass users in
response to multiple customer requests. The Company also received
notices of allowance on three smart eyewear design patent
applications (patent application Nos. 29/806,204, 29/806,207,
29/806,209).
- Launch of Lucyd smart eyewear in ten select New Look stores in
Quebec and on NewLook.ca. New Look
is a leading eyewear retailer with over 450 stores in the US and
Canada.
- Signed a new distribution agreement with Windsor Eyes, a
leading eyewear manufacturing and distribution firm. This agreement
aims to forge a robust collaboration between Innovative Eyewear's
unique, cutting-edge smart eyewear products and Windsor Eyes'
well-established distribution network within the optical retail
sector. Together, Innovative and Windsor intend to work closely to ensure
extensive distribution of smart eyewear across the United States, targeting key large optical
retail outlets.
- Signed Micah Richards, former
Olympic athlete, pro UK footballer and Sky News announcer, as a
leading brand ambassador. The Company believes Mr. Richards will be
a well-aligned headliner to promote the upcoming Reebok Powered
by Lucyd collection, and spearhead efforts to expand into UK
optical stores.
- PCMag rated LUCY's Nautica frames the "Best Smart Eyewear for
ChatGPT Super Fans," indicating a positive reception from a trusted
tech news source for the Company's GenAI featured eyewear.
- The Company engaged a new audio engineering team to further
enhance the music and call quality of several of its forthcoming
products.
Future Outlook
After the recent successful launch of the Eddie
Bauer® Powered by Lucyd line in the second
quarter of 2024, the Company anticipates launching the
Reebok® Powered by Lucyd line and the Lucyd Armor
smart safety glasses in the second half of 2024, to be followed by
a Reebok® Optical Smart Eyewear collection in the first
half of 2025.
Meanwhile, the Company is focused on introducing Lucyd products
in major national retailers, which management believes may have a
significant positive impact on revenues in subsequent periods. To
help achieve this, the Company has recently partnered with Windsor
Eyes as a premier distributor in the optical market, and as of
July 2024, that company has already
helped introduce Lucyd frames into three new eyewear retailers.
In its continuing efforts to reduce costs and improve margins,
the Company has utilized sales data to refine its product mix, and
anticipates reducing unit costs in the future by focusing on high
volume, market-tested styles. The Company has also recently
contracted with a new lower-cost lens supplier, which is expected
to further reduce lens costs beginning in the third quarter of
2024. The Company anticipates that gross profit margins may further
improve in the fourth quarter of 2024 as the new Lucyd Armor and
Reebok® Powered by Lucyd lines are launched, as
the unit cost of these new products is estimated to be
significantly lower than current Lucyd Lyte models.
The Company has nearly completed development of several new
product lines and retail solutions to be launched in the fourth
quarter of 2024 and during 2025, and anticipates an end-to-end
overhaul of its product offering to consumers and retailers by the
first quarter of 2025. We believe this will bring additional
improvements to product build quality and adjustability, sound
quality, size and style variety, custom lens quality, companion app
functionality, and sell-through rates of retail displays.
Harrison Gross, CEO of
Innovative Eyewear Inc., commented,
"We have continued the trend of outperforming each quarter on a
year-over-year basis, which we have done every quarter for the last
12 months. I am pleased by our continued growth and excited by the
potential of further expansion later this year with the upcoming
launches of new product lines and upgraded app releases.
"While our ecommerce direct-to-consumer sales remain the most
material portion of our sales to date, we believe that the
wholesale optical channel represents our largest growth
opportunity. We anticipate that as smart eyewear becomes more
normalized for prescription wear, national eye care providers will
begin to onboard more smart eyewear. As an innovator and value and
variety leader in the category, we believe we are well positioned
to earn a steadily increasing portion of this rapidly growing
market."
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains certain forward-looking statements,
including those relating to the Company's business operations,
projections, market position, future product line introductions and
developments. Forward-looking statements are based on the Company's
current expectations and assumptions. The Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides a safe-harbor for
forward-looking statements. These statements may be identified by
the use of forward-looking expressions, including, but not limited
to, "anticipate," "believe," "continue," "estimate," "expect,"
"future," "intend," "may," "outlook," "plan," "potential,"
"predict," "project," "should," "will," "would" and similar
expressions that predict or indicate future events or trends or
that are not statements of historical matters, but the absence of
these words does not mean that a statement is not forward-looking.
The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update any
forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information,
future events or otherwise. Important factors that could cause
actual results to differ materially from those in the
forward-looking statements are set forth in the Company's filings
with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its annual
report on Form 10-K under the caption "Risk Factors."
Investor Relations Contact:
Scott Powell
Skyline Corporate Communications Group, LLC
Telephone: +1 (646) 893-5835
Email: scott@skylineccg.com
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SOURCE Innovative Eyewear, Inc.